Transylvanian Review Vol. XXIII No. 4 Winter 2014

• Paradigms

Gheorghe Iacob – The Second Hundred Years’ War (1914–2014) • 3

Abstract – The Second Hundred Years’ War (1914–2014): Geopolitical Implications for Romania – In the present article, we suggest integrating the concept of a “new Cold War” in a more detailed analysis starting from the periodization of a “Second Hundred Years’ War,” a phrase we later found in an article by the American journalist Barry Casselman. This phrase offers a pretext for an analysis of the current situation in Europe and Romania with facts contextualized and compared against those from 1914. Additionally, we aim to outline the stages of the period 1914–2014. We contend that the period 2008–2014 (the crisis in Georgia and Ukraine) indicates the return to a “logic of conflict” typical of the year 1914. The adopted perspective is politological, even discursive, as it is more appropriate for a “stroll through the century” and for a meditation on the current period. Therefore, we propose a number of observations, premises, and especially questions regarding the developments in international politics and the situation of Romania throughout the entire 20th century and early 21st century.

Keywords – the Second Hundred Years’ War, the interwar armistice, the Cold War, the post–Cold War armistice,the Second Cold War

Catalin Turliuc – Perceptions of World War I • 12

Abstract – Perceptions of World War I – World War I, or the Great War as it is remembered by many nations, witnessed a series of innovations both in the way it was conducted (breadth and amplitude, weaponry, strategy and tactics etc.), as well as in the way it was perceived and internalized by the participant nations and their societies. The fact that perception is often more important than reality motivates the interest in showing how the perceptions of World War I, at the dawn of the current iconic society, modeled attitudes, behaviors and mentalities. The present work aims to present and analyze the way in which the outbreak of the conflict and its further development were viewed by the main actors, respectively the Western nations in the Entente, but also the echo of these tragic events in the Romanian Old Kingdom. Beyond the information that supports this analysis and its inherent comparative nature, the author proposes a heuristic model of analysis derived from “Social change” analysis. Beginning with the various propaganda means used by the belligerent nations, the numerous testimonies (either individual or collective) which represent valuable sources, this work will highlight fundamental aspects of the way in which both the public and the individual perception of the war developed during the Great War. The conclusions of this work emphasize the fact that manipulation has become an efficient way of influencing public opinion in modern societies, especially in those experiencing a state of deep conflict.

Abstract – “Resurrection through Death”: Francis Ferdinand’s Assassination and the Memory of Joseph II among the Romanians in Transylvania – The Sarajevo event projected inside the borders of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, as the lost savior of monarchy, not one person, as it would have been normal, but two: the heir to the throne, Francis Ferdinand, and the “father of the country,” the immortal Joseph II. The news that the last hope Romanians had for a ruler had died came as a shock, and therefore the collective mentality sorrowfully projected the image of the possible reformer in comparison to that of the first truly noticeable reformer, Joseph II. Dynastic loyalty had gradually degraded due to the long reign of Francis Joseph, who described himself as the last old-school monarch, as well as due to his dualist compromise (1867), forgiven for a while but not forgotten. In this sense, Francis Ferdinand was adopted as heir, the Romanians seeing in him the breath of fresh air that they needed, another Joseph, the vigor of youth being assimilated with the reformist spirit of the enlightened emperor. This rebirth of Josephinism began gradually with the appointment of Francis Ferdinand as heir to the throne, it developed with the help of the Transylvanian elites associated with the Archduke’s Chancellery, and died in the moment of the Sarajevo murder, leaving just the emotional impact of the ruin of the Romanians’ hopes.

Abstract – Exitium Imperii: Transferring Military Loyalties in Uncertain Borderlands – The ongoing centennial commemorations have steered the literature and debates on WWI. Nevertheless,most of the research on its causes and consequences reflects traditional methodologies and approaches. The “national” perspective is primarily a consequence of the postwar political-legal arrangements, whereas the “global” approach is more recent and reinforced by other disciplines. Several studies take a “middle” perspective, some of them seeing the pre–WWI Central and Eastern European strategic landscape as a regional systemic context of its own, a distinctive balanced interaction among the contiguous empires of the Hohenzollern, Habsburg, Ottoman and Romanov dynasties. This article aims to highlight some particularities of the East and Central European inter-imperial framework by introducing a new research area. The shift in the Romanian officers’ loyalties from an imperial/supranational hierarchy to a national one will be used as a case study.

Ionela Zaharia – Romanian Military Priests from Austria-Hungary on the Italian Front during World War I • 43

Abstract – Romanian Military Priests from Austria-Hungary on the Italian Front during World War I – The article tries to uncover a facet of the war that has not been extensively researched and analyzed so far, namely, the activity of the Romanian military clergy from Austria-Hungary on the Italian front during World War I, focusing on those who helped in developing a different kind of spirituality on the battlefront. Also, it seeks to highlight the manner in which the particularities of the Italian front affected the soldiers and the military priests, considering that here we are not dealing with trench warfare, but rather with fighting on mountainous terrain.

Alexandru Porteanu – The Higher Raison d’État and the Imperative of World Peace: The Treaty of Trianon and its Ratification by Romania • 54

Abstract – The Higher Raison d’Etat and the Imperative of World Peace: The Treaty of Trianon and its Ratification by Romania – The complete history of the Treaty of Trianon should necessarily include the final phase, the treaty ratification by the signatories, as a condition for its entry into force. Analyzing the history of the Peace Treaty of Trianon ratification (1920–1921), our study includes some considerations on the treaty historiography and the need to broaden its scope at the level of 21th century standards. The decisive factor in the adoption and implementation of the treaty was—if we ignore the divergences over details—the understanding of the general political responsibility, of the raison d’Etat of each signatory Party, of world peace as the supreme reason. The Treaty of Trianon may be considered a valuable chapter in the knowledge of history, a test of conscience and responsible reflection that creatively look forward to the world of today and tomorrow.

Abstract – The Great War and the “Literature for All“: The Radiography of a Literary Myth – The article aims to examine the emergence—within the context of the Great War, approximately between 1915 and 1920—of a mythology regarding the “literature for all.” An entire range of social, economic and political conditionings (such as the universal suffrage and the agrarian reform in 1917, and the reunification of 1918) have imposed the conceptualization of the masses as part of the literary culture and as a central theme of the literary debate. What we propose is to follow the complex articulation of the relationship between literature and people. “Literature for all” has involved not only a rethinking of the production and reception of the literary work, but also the exploration of implicitly experimental formulas: the temptation of a document-literature, denouncing the talent in literary production, the interest for anonymous and collective forms of creations and so on.

Abstract –A Maecenas of Romanian Culture in Transylvania: Vasile Stroescu – Vasile Stroescu illustrates an epoch and a spirit. The end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century was a period of unlimited confidence in culture and in the idea of national solidarity. Vasile Stroescu, born in an old noble family from Bessarabia (today the Republic of Moldova), owner of over 25,000 hectares of land, was one of the greatest Romanian philanthropists. In the period preceding the First World War, he provided approximately one million crowns in aid for the Romanian culture in Transylvania. Among the beneficiaries of the aid provided by Stroescu were also the Romanian students from Cluj and Budapest. The first book collection for the Romanian students from Cluj was achieved in 1912 with Stroescu’s contribution. His action was considered by a newspaper of Cluj as “a historical gesture of today’s Romanian consciousness.”

Abstract – The Romanian Principalities in the Focus of Interest of Russian Foreign Policy – Even before the Romanian unitary national state was established, the Russian Empire would look at the Romanian territory from a multiple perspective, seeing it as a means of gaining influence and taking action in the Christian provinces of the Ottoman Empire in times of peace, a critical supplier of cereals for the Russian troops fighting in the Balkans, and a place to recruit volunteers for the imperial army in times of war. The other Great Powers did not share the Russian interest in the Romanian Principalities. As a result of such divergent interests, the Romanian Principalities would often be ravaged by military conflicts and faced with obstacles on their way to consolidating a stable state structure. They often turned into a theatre of war that served the interests of the Great Powers and were forced to a lengthy exercise in diplomacy in preparation for a national state of the Romanians who were the majority population on this territory.

Abstract – Prussian-Moldavian Relations and Perceptions in the Late 18th Century with a Special View on Prussian Publications –In the year 1774 the Peace of Kucuk Kaynarca instituted a new order in Europe, the Russian Empire gaining a dominant place in the Balkans and especially in the Romanian Principalities. This also opened the door for other European states to intervene in the region and possibly take over some territories from an Ottoman Empire which was increasingly becoming the “Sick Man of Europe.” Prussia, without having a common border with the Romanian Principality of Moldavia, which at the time still included what is nowadays Bessarabia, showed great interest in this region. The year 1784 saw the establishment of Prussia’s first official Representative Office in Iaşi, Professor Ernst Friedrich Konig representing Frederick II of Prussia in Moldavia. The central issue of the paper revolves around the nature of the relationship between Moldavia and Prussia between the years 1774 and 1812 and the way in which it was presented in Prussian publications.

Abstract – Reading the Birth of Tragedy – Nietzsche’s The Birth of Tragedy is most often discussed only as a source of his conceptions about the Apollinic and the Dyonisian. Through an analysis of the questions of science, music and myth in this piece of writing, this paper demonstrates that, in spite of what Nietzsche says in his “Attempt at a Self-Criticism,” he belongs to an age-old chain of Western political thinking that includes Plato, Marx and Heidegger. Moreover, it will also come to light that Nietzsche will never give up the ambitions stated in this work. The Birth of Tragedy announces a post-philosophical programme that will be accomplished in Thus Spoke Zarathustra. At a more general level, this discussion brings into question the relationship between theory and politics or, rather, the attempt at creating a philosophical model for political existence as such.